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In this Italian children's classic, a lonely toymaker named Gepetto creates a small wooden puppet who magically comes to life. In a series of mischievous adventures, Pinocchio thinks he can get by on a variety of clever lies and tricks. There is one problem: his nose grows every time he tells a lie. One way or another, the truth always comes out, and Pinocchio finds out that lying does not pay.

Central Park is perhaps the most well-trod and familiar green space in the country. It is both a refuge from the city and Manhattan's very heart; a respite from the urban grind and a hive of activity all its own. Eight hundred forty-three carefully planned acres allow some 37 million visitors each year to come and get lost in a sense of nature. Unsurprisingly, the park also inspires a wealth of great writing, and here Andrew Blauner collects some of the finest fiction and nonfiction - 20 pieces in all.

Waves of destruction have been unleashed from four sites of ancient forest, and scientists are unable to explain the instability in Earth’s mantle, nor the forces sweeping across the planet’s surface, changing everything.

At age 26 Dave Cicirelli found himself at a crossroads. While his friends on Facebook appeared to have lives of nonstop accomplishments, his early adulthood felt disappointingly routine. So one October morning, Dave announced on Facebook that he was dropping everything and heading west. Many thought him brave - or crazy.

Speed: the most demonized - and misunderstood - drug in the land. Deprived of the ingrained romantic mysticism of the opiate or the cosmopolitan chic of cocaine or the mundane tolerance of marijuana, there is no sympathy for this devil. Yet speed - crystal meth, amphetamines, Dexedrine, Benzedrine, Adderall; crank, spizz, chickenscratch, oblivious marching powder, the go-fast - is the most American of drugs: twice the productivity at half the cost, and equal opportunity for all.

What Luck, This Life begins in the aftermath of the space shuttle's break-up, as the people of Piney Woods watch their pastures swarm with searchers and reporters bluster at their doors. A shop owner defends herself against a sexual predator who is pushed to new boldness after he is disinvited to his family reunion. A closeted father facing a divorce that will leave his gifted boy adrift retrieves an astronaut's remains. An engineer who dreams of orbiting Earth joins a search for debris and instead uncovers an old neighbor's buried longing.

In Chutin’ the Bull, psychotherapist Mark George examines the putrid underbelly of life and turns his disgust into something completely different.

Detective Mike Palazzola of Detroit’s Third Precinct is good at catching the bad guys. But after several mishandled criminal cases, he becomes increasingly frustrated with the judicial system and its prosecutors. The alleged murderers he worked so hard to capture and indict are either dismissed on a legal technicality, exonerated, or given lenient sentences by the court system.

The alien creatures have made it to Earth. Entire cities are battling invasion from the menacing swarms. This is worse than Zola. It’s worse than the Leak. It’s worse than all of our nightmares put together. The creatures are indestructible, shrugging off our strongest weaponry. Now, our only hope lies inside a powerful ancient artifact we don’t understand. To save Earth’s future, we have to unlock the secrets of a lost alien past. Whatever it takes, we have to harness the power of the Orb.

In Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep?, neuroscientists and zombie enthusiasts Timothy Verstynen and Bradley Voytek apply their neuro-know-how to dissect the puzzle of what has happened to the zombie brain to make the undead act differently than their human prey. Combining tongue-in-cheek analysis with modern neuroscientific principles, Verstynen and Voytek show how zombism can be understood in terms of current knowledge regarding how the brain works.

Humanity has much to rebuild in the aftermath of the star snakes. But before they can even get started, the Waymakers return, bringing their interstellar war with them. With the Waymakers and Glimmers battling it out across the solar system, humanity is caught in the middle. Colonies are put under lockdown. Any ship caught flying is destroyed. Millions starve. Even more die in the attacks. With humanity on the verge of annihilation, old enemies unite and prepare for war.

Ignacio Zola saw billions of lives as collateral damage in his plan to reach a new world. But when I got in his way, I didn’t just make him angry. I made this personal. Stopping one disaster has only pushed him towards something even more diabolical. Now, I have one shot left. To stop the planet-killing cataclysm Zola has set in motion, I’ll have to repurpose some mind-blowing technology from his own abandoned research center.

Noah is a kidnapper, hired to buy a baby from a human trafficking ring and smuggle her across the Canadian border for a cool half a million dollars. Eve is a teenage runaway, who takes the infant—and the sack full of cash—away from him. Hester is an outcast, living alone in a backwoods cottage, harboring secrets of her own. When their paths cross, it’s anyone’s guess who’ll come out on top.

With the ACA and Hive invasions successfully thwarted, Tranquility's newest colonists are struggling to rebuild. Peace has finally come to humanity's furthest colony, and life is finally starting to return to normal. The peace was not meant to be. After receiving a distress call from a distant scouting mission, Lander and the newly formed military find themselves deploying to a dead alien world, where the heart of the Hive lies in wait.

Created in a lab to serve as a host to the parasitic chok’tal, Dak Korasa is a Purifier, an elite warrior genetically altered to possess superhuman strength and endurance. Compelled by the symbiote inside him, Dak engages in combat as an unwilling participant in the Glorious Game, earning points for every kill. If he fails to keep up his body count, the chok’tal will end his life. Guilt-ridden at being forced to perpetrate one massacre after another just to survive, Dak wants the alien out of his body at any cost.

I guess saving the world once wasn't enough… First it was the auroras, lighting up Europe every night. Then came the weird clouds over Africa. The tidal shifts... the failing crops... the crazy changes to animal migration... And I think all of this is just the start. I don't buy the official line that these are natural occurrences. Not anymore. Not since a whistleblower hid a coded message in my invitation for an upcoming commemoration ceremony on The Vita. Now I know the truth—that Earth is in serious danger from the side-effects of their reckless research.

"Lotta a Satana" è una raccolta di poesie e musiche originali, dei 'tappeti sonori' che arricchiscono e contestualizzano le parole recitate. Le letture sono a cura dell'autore e di Viviana Piccolo, attrice e regista teatrale. L'opera è divisa in tre parti di undici poesie ciascuna, per un totale di 33 poesie. "Lotta a Satana" raccoglie poesie scritte tra il 1992 e il 2022: trent'anni di poesie e pensieri che celebrano la natura, l'amore divino e la ricerca di quella spiritualità di cui l'umanità ha sempre più bisogno, in un mondo materialista ed incurante del male che da solo si sta auto infliggendo.